True cost of council workers’ strike emerges

True cost of council workers’ strike emerges

Striking Nicosia council workers have only just returned to work following months of strife with the council over unpaid wages. Mountains of refuse have been left in the wake of the strikes.

However, it appears that the District Governor did find TL1.5 million to pay private refuse collection companies to help clear up the mess. This decision was approved by the Council of Ministers and was done without a tender process.

District Governor, Kemal Dana said that the tendering process was bypassed because of the urgency of the problem and that eight private refuse collection companies were used.

In the meanwhile, finally, council employees are due to get paid at 10.30 this morning.

According to Union Director Mustafa Yalinkaya, the cheque is at the bank and everybody is waiting for Central Bank approval for payments to begin.

A number of employees said that they would not believe it until they saw the money in their hands!